A recent report from Reuters has revealed that troubled personal and business bank account provider Anglo Irish Bank is to close its doors and be decommissioned.
The government of Ireland has plans to approach the European Commission in order to gain permission to mothball the lending institution, which has been nationalised since the inception of the global banking crisis, according to the UK news agency. The Irish Government, if gaining approval for the plan, would then enter the bank into a winding down period before closing its doors forever.
Mike Aynsley, Anglo Irish’s chief executive officer, was vehemently opposed to the plan, however, going so far as to say that Irish government officials were barking up the wrong tree in their plans in a recent interview in Irelad’s Sunday Business Post. Mr Aynsley suggested an alternative plan where a portion of the bank would instead continue its banking business, such as providing savings accounts to customers, under a new name.
The Irish personal and business loan provider announced losses for 2010’s first six months of €8.2 billion, in addition to €4.8 billion in charges originating from loan impairments.
For the same six month period last year, 2010 results were double the 2009 losses of €4.1 billion.
Sean Fitzpatrick, former chairman of Anglo Irish, tendered his resignation from the lender at the close of 2008 after admitting that he had authorised the temporary transfer of Former Anglo Irish chairman, , resigned from the bank in December 2008, having admitted to temporarily transferring €87 million in Anglo Irish loans to a separate bank shortly before the financial services instiution’s fiscal year ended.
There had apparently been similar incidents that had occurred throughout the eight years prior to the admission, which meant that those loans were not accounted for in Anglo Irish’s annual account ledgers during the entire time the practise had been in place.
Since his resignation from his position with Anglo Irish, Mr Fitzpatrick has declared bankruptcy.